Parking charges are set to manage the parking spaces available in the city. The charges may need to be set at a level that has the desired effect of rationing the availability of on-street parking to encourage the use of off-street parking.
This in turn helps improve air quality and ease congestion in busy hotspots. Higher charges in the city centre help manage limited space and encourage people to consider areas where there is greater capacity and lower charges.
The city of Brighton & Hove is a busy and densely populated place and a popular tourist destination. There is an enormous demand for parking, and parking controls are essential to keep traffic moving and allow access for residents, businesses and eight million annual visitors.
A surplus has been generated from parking income because the 13 parking charges reflect the need to manage the traffic and parking demands. Fees and charges are reviewed annually to make sure they cover the cost of services and provide value for money.
Fees and charges are set by the council’s Environment, Transport & Sustainability committee and the council has a discretion to set charges to reflect its parking policies.
Read about the council committee meeting to approve these changes.
More penalty charge notices were issued in 2016/17, although penalty charge notices issued for bus lane contraventions fell from 16,722 in 2015/16 to 8,858 in 2016/17. Compliance with the bus lanes in the city is generally good and the number of penalty charge notices has dropped due to this.
The surplus from off-street parking has risen to £2,869,184.26 (2016/17) from £2,666,337.75 million (2015/16), mainly as a result of increased revenue from The Lanes, Trafalgar Street, London Road and Regency Square car parks. All four have again been awarded the ‘Park Mark’ award for safer parking, making them more attractive and safer to visit.
Any surplus made thorough parking fees and charges has to be invested into transport and highways. This is a legal requirement.
In 2016/17 after direct costs there was a surplus of £13,686,652. The table below shows a year on year comparisons of how the council invested the income back into transport and highways.
The Local Transport Plan since 2011-12 has been 100% grant funded from the Department for Transport, so there are no borrowing costs included in relation to the Local Transport Plan for this year.
Capital investment borrowing costs of £2,676,729.00 relate to previous years Local Transport Plan schemes since 2001. The money spent on borrowing costs has continued to fall each year.
Each year a report is presented to the Environment Transport & Sustainability Meeting to agree how funds will be allocated to deliver the Local Transport Plan capital programme for the following year.
The council supports some bus routes through subsidising the costs of running the services. In financial year 2016/17 the council spent £908,278.00 on supporting bus services.
You can find out more about supported bus services here.
The majority of the surplus is spent on providing free bus travel for both elderly and disabled citizens. The Council spent £10,929,562.00 in financial year 2016/17.
You can find out more about concessionary travel on the following webpages:
Some of the projects funded by surplus income include:
- Quality bus partnership Initiative
- Walking facilities (dropped kerbs & tactile)
- Cycle parking
- A23 Sustainable Transport Corridor
- Cycle route signing
- Travel Plans for Schools
- Pedestrian priority Ship St/Old Town
- Traffic control improvements
- Brighton Station Gateway Project
- Walking network improvements
- Cycle route Old Shoreham Road
- Electric vehicle charging points (Local Transport Plan)
- Pedestrian way-finding and signing project
- Cycle priority
- New Road/Church Street junction and crossing
- Electric vehicles
- Chatham Place rail bridge support
- Bear Road retaining wall
- Dyke Road Drive retaining wall
- Marine Parade retaining wall
- Footways maintenance 2011-12.
